A Message From Danielle Steel

December 2007

Dear Friends,

December is one of the best months of the year, although it can be challenging for us all. It's a busy month for everyone, and sometimes we can feel lonely in the midst of all the excitement and fun, and things don't always work out as we hope or plan. But if we can't celebrate the holidays with family, hopefully we can with friends. And even among loving families, things can get hectic and overbooked. With a little luck, we get to spend the holidays with those we love, share meals, celebrations, and spectacular times. If we have the time, it's wonderful to share the gift of ourselves, and remember how much we care about the people close to us.

I have always particularly loved holiday traditions since I was a child. It's harder to organize as the kids grow up, but I cherish every moment we spend together. I hope that your holidays are full of love and blessings and the people that you care about. Happy holidays to all of you!!!

Love,

Danielle

P.S. You are always welcome to visit me at my home on the web:
http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/ewHP0Mx6Ij0V50H860EX

The end is near...

Firstly, thank you, Teeny for the kind message in the cbox, to be honest, I'd been thinking no one was interested in MY FAVORITE THINGS anymore and have been contemplating deleting my beloved blog. Some one asked me for the last few episodes of WHEN YOU ARE MINE some time back so click on this link, LAST TWO EPISODES OF WHEN YOU ARE MINE to read it. But as for the full story, I'll start posting it but I'm in the middle of my exams right now, so be patient. Okay?
Don Lupe has finally escaped his prison and it won't be long now before he's reunited with his children.Although, I'm a little disappointed, I wanted Catalina to be the heroine who finds him and helps him escape. I just hope the old man has heard enough from Marcelo to know that Catalina is not an opportunist but a very wronged woman. As for Sebastian, his punishment would be discovering he's been trusting and consorting with a liar and a traitor and I can't imagine how he'll react when he finds out the real reason why Cat had married Creepy Carmelo in the first place.
Poor Gustavo paid for trying to help Sebastian and Martina get their father back and free his daughter from the bondage of a marriage by getting beaten up by Carmelo's horrible bodyguards. But I don't think Creepy Carmelo would interested in that at all, because right now, his main priority is to find Don Lupe before he gets to his children who will waste no time putting him in jail for kidnapping and attempted murder. This will also affect Jessica, who helped forged the Will;if she's not sentenced to serve time in jail, she'll most likely be disbarred.
As for the couple, the ball will be on Cat's court; not if she will forgive idiot Sebastian or not, but how much time will pass before she does or how much time before Sebastian will swallow his pride and plead with her. PEACE OUT

MORE PROBLEMS FOR OUR CATALINA

What happened yesterday... Cat suddenly fainted at the charity concert; while Martina dashed off to find a doctor, Sebastian callously walked away since 'she has a husband to look after her', inspite of Romero's protests. Don Lupe suddenly had trouble breathing and a very worried Roberta administered oxygen to him , with Marcelo's reluctant help. Between gasps, he begged Marcelo to tell him about his children and why Cat had married Carmelo in the first place. But Marcelo first wanted to know why he'd never acknowleged Carmelo as his son. Lupe once again denied being his father but admited that the only woman he'd had an affair with outside his marriage was with Toni. Amelia confessed to the Padre that she's been sleeping with Marcelo but insisted it was Sebastian she loved, the bitch conveniently forgot to add that she'd been the one to ruin C&S's marriage in the first place. Antonio, although his 'mother' had told him Cat's story, has joined the list of men to fall under her spell; commenting on how beautiful she was and 'we really liked each other'. Toni scornfully could'nt understand what men saw in 'that woman, she's pretty but there's no spark.' Antonio refused to believe that she'd married Carmelo for his money when she loved Sebastian, Josepha defended Cat by explaining how Amelia and Carmelo had joined forces to ruin Cat's marriage. When Toni admitted she knew about the plots but never told the couple, Antonio expressed his anger and disgust.Meanwhile Antonio's family discuss the possibility of Carmelo being their real so and wonder whether to ask Petra, who is told that Alicia has invited her to her wedding. Romero is advised by one of the BOOM boys to mend things with Martina. The doctor Martina managed to find confirmed our suspicions, Cat is PREGNANT! But alas, both Martina and the diabolical Jessica were present when she was told. The 2 girls hastily pulled Sebastian(who came back to check on her) away as Creepy Carmelo came up. CC, wondering why she was sick all the time, ordered Cat to get herself checked the next day. Jessica at first attempted to stop Martina from telling Sebastian that Cat was pregnant but they tell him anyway, to his amazement. Sebastian is sure it was his child since Cat and Carmelo haven't been married for long but Jesscica maliciously suggested that she may have been sleeping wiht Carmelo before they married. Cat called Alicia to give her the startling news, Louisa overheard and dropped the cup of tea in her hand. Adela gets worried when Mary, the maid, suggests that Cat's illness could be as a result of preganancy and goes to warn her daughter; if it's true, she'd better not be pregnant for Sebastian or they'll lose everything. (you mean she will lose everything, shameless woman).

Just in, from Hollywood

First we have 'LIONS FOR LAMBS' directed by the visibly aged but still good looking Robert Redford(I first saw him in the role of the aloof tycoon in the 1974 adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY alongside Mia Farrow) who also stars along with Tom Cruise and the ever sweet faced Meryl Streep(Redford's co-star in the 1985 film, OUT OF AFRICA). The film is about a platoon of American soldiers fighting in Afganistan, a idealistic professor(Redford), a U.S Senator(Cruise) and a journalist(Streep), whose lives are interwoven.For more details, click on LIONS FOR LAMBS' PLOT.

Ageless Denzel Washington returns in AMERICAN GANGSTER, the true life story of Frank Lucas who starts his career as an unassuming chauffeur/righthandman to a drug kingpin but then becomes a druglord himself, starting his own empire after his boss suddenly dies from a heart attack. Lucas smmugled his drugs into the country under the nose of the U.S government by hiding them in the bodies of soldiers(killed in Vietnam) being shipped back home.Rugged New Zelander Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, the FBI Agent who brought Lucas and his empire down. For more details, click on
American Gangster's plot .

Trivia: In 1995, Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe starred in the
science fiction film VIRTUOSITY.

Jodie Foster's acting career started as a little girl, one of her early

roles was of Becky Thatcher in one of the adaptations of Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER. See her in THE BRAVE ONE, about a bereaved woman who turns into a bloodthirsty vigilante after she is severely beaten and her fiance(Naveen Andrews, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) is murdered by thugs when they innocently out for a walk with their dog. Full of grief at her loss, she buys a gun and goes round killing criminals at random as well tracking down the thugs who had attacked her and killed David. Terence Howard(who played Miguel D. Nuez' goofy brother in the classic sitcom, SPARKS as well as the villian in BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE) is the detective assigned to her case and who may have to make a big decision when he finds out the vigilante is actually someone he knows.

Also look out for the remake of one of the earliest of slasher films, John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, directed by Rob Zombie, though personally I don't understand why it's being remade since the original movie has about 7 sequels, making it Halloween pt. 1-8; part 8 being HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, where 2 producers came up with the very stupid idea of having a reality show in the mass murderer's own childhood house. For more details about the original movies AND the killer, click on MICHEAL MYERS.

(Between him and Jason Voorhees, I don't know who gives me the shivers more).

Malcom Mcdowell(the villain in I SPY) plays the embattled psychiatrist Dr. Loomis(originally played by the late Donald Pleasance). Tyler Mane (Sabretooth in X MEN) is the 8th actor to don on the creepy mask of Micheal Myers and Scout Taylor-Crompton as Laurie Strode(originally played back in the 70's by a much younger Jamie Lee Curtis),Micheal's sister whom he has much hunger to kill.

TRIVIA: Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Janet Leigh, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO.

What should replace CATALINA y SEBASTIAN?

Since this telenovela is now showing signs of rounding up any time soon, (THANK GOD!), now the question is, what telenovela would replace it. Well, since I mentioned LA Heredera in

It's raining Telenovelas! post, some of my visitors expressed their wish that AIT should have shown this one, so maybe WE MIGHT get the chance of seeing it after Catalina y Sebastian wraps up, but on the other hand, people might get tired of seeing Silvia Navarro and Sergio Basanez for the third time. Personally, I want to see this telenovela which came out in 2004, about the love affair between Maria Claudia Madero Grimaldi and the company's pilot, Juan Antonio Bausista; this time Silvia Navarro is the millonairess, SO no hateful name of 'opportunist' tagged on her.

Or... how about the remake of NO ONE BUT YOU, which came out in 1995,

Acapulco, Cuerpo y Alma about the passionate love afair between Lorena and David Monltavo , who(FOR those who remember what happened between Antonio and Raquel in NO ONE BUT YOU) are 2

strangers who find themselves married to each other without having met before , all thanks to David's evil stepbrother's trick of getting David's estate for himself. But then the battle for David's wealth turns to the battle for Lorena, because Lorena and David fall in love with each other. What might put people is the fact that it only has 60 episodes but I would very much like it if AIT can get hold of this one and give us a treat by showing it.

PUT IT TO VOTE NOW!

 

CARMELO'S DAY OF RECKONING... ROUND THE CORNER

Carmelo has done nothing but create more and more problems for himself; the worst one by marrying Catalina, just to ' bother Sebastian', then later on wondering out loud why Cat prefered 'that idiot' instead of him and what did Sebastian had that he did'nt. My answer to that question...PLENTY OF THINGS although I still think Daddy's boy is a jerk and a moron who needs to ask Cat for her forgiveness. Ever since the strange episode where Carmelo vehemently forbade his wife from coming to the roof and Sebastian's unexpected visit ,Cat and Gustavo became fully convinced that Carmelo is hiding Don Lupe and plans to sneak out of the charity concert to inform the police of their suspicions, and I sincerely hope the cops get there on time. And now that Don Lupe overheard Roberta and one of the guards discussing how Carmelo forced such a pretty lady like Catalina to marry him ; he's finally realised whatever her reasons, it wasn't for money.

Now, most people have asked me what will happen next. Well, from a comment I read in a website concerning this telenovela, and I quote... the last remaining chapters(episodes) were so full of deaths! One of them would be Amelia's who made the terrible mistake of driving Carmelo's car which was rigged with a bomb planted by Marcelo(yeah, there's no honour between thieves) and got blown up to oblivion. I got this from a neighbur's boyfriend who is from Benin Republic, apparently CATALINA Y SEBASTIAN aired there years back .

Carmelo, of course died too, not by Sebastian's hand like I hoped but by the police who caught up with him and blasted him down when he(so typical) tried to resist arrest. The only person who probably shed tears over him would be Petra who raised him but got no real love from that ingrate. At the last minute(according to Jonathan, the few things of CATALINA Y SEBASTIAN he could remember) was that Petra told him who his mother was, Toni(Antoinette) but alas, he refused to accept that vile woman was his mother and died a bitter death.

That's all I know for now , folks. When I get more info. , I'll let you know.

But back to the present, Jessica now knows, through Carmelo's disastrous slip of tongue, that he's hiding Don Lupe. It's no use her bluffing that he can't prove she helped him forge the Will since he plans on taking her down with him if she dared to open her mouth. Jessica is now like a rat caught in the corner, either way she tries to find a way out, she's still trapped. She's more horrified that Sebastian told his exwife about his suspicions; Cat of course has more to gain if she puts 2 and 2 together(and she already has) and be the one to rescue Don Lupe(AND I really hope the despised and so misjudged Catalina would be the one who rescues Don Lupe), it's either she and Gustavo leads the police to the penthouse attic or Cat might run the risk of going there herself after distracting the guards and set him free. Either way, I hope she or them(i.e the cops) get there before Carmelo moves Don Lupe again(unfortunately he'd overheard Gustavo and Alicia talking about their suspicions about him).

I got from a VERY,VERY RELIABLE SOURCE that Jessica broke down and confessed her crime to her grandfather and Sebastian after a lot of pressure, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE the look on that idiot's face when he finds out he's been consorting with a traitor and liar, I'm pretty certain she would cry saying, ' Believe me Sebastian, I did it for love, I did it for love!' (NONSENSE!)

What really concerns me is how Sebastian would get Cat to forgive him; it;s obvious to all of us viewers that she's pregnant and Sebastian stands to lose two precious things if he doesn't, quoting BoyzIIMen,

' gonna swallow my pride, say I'm sorry... stop pointing fingers, the blame is on me...I want a new life and I want it with you... I'm down on my knees, begging you please...'
PEACE AND LOVE.

Danielle Steel's Holiday Letter

Danielle's Holiday Letter

It has been a full and busy year for me, and I'm sure it has been for you too. I often say to you that we no sooner get through the holidays, when it seems like we are facing them again. That is true this year as well. As I always do, I worked hard and did a lot of writing last winter, and into the spring. Hardcover and paperback books came out, and a DVD of "SAFE HARBOUR" was filmed for release this fall. Writing wise, it's been a busy year! And I'm hard at work on new books for next year.

AMAZING GRACE is coming out in hardcover late this fall, in time for the holidays. It's about a major earthquake in San Francisco, 100 years after the big one of 1906, and in the aftermath four unusual people are brought together, each of them impacted by the earthquake. The book is about the events that come afterwards, and how their lives are affected and intersect. I hope you love it. It was a fun book to write, and it would make a great holiday gift. There will be another hardcover out in March, and I hope you like that one too! I always try to keep the subjects of the books different and exciting, and there is a good variety of topics in the books for next year.

On a personal level, it has been a busy year too. We've been blessed with the arrival of a new grandchild, and with four of my children still in college, they are constantly in and out of the house. We had a wonderful summer together, and now we're looking forward to the holidays, when everyone will be home to share the traditions we have enjoyed for many years. As they get older, things change somewhat, and the time with them is ever more precious. We no longer make brownies for their teachers, but make them for friends instead. We don't do the ice skating party that delighted them when they were younger, because they come home too close to the holidays and it's hard to jam everything in. But the rest of our Christmas traditions have stayed the same. Every moment with my children is precious, and I'm grateful that they all still come home for the holidays.

With all of them in college, I am traveling more, and have more time to write. But, I have to admit, I miss them enormously, and the days when I was running from soccer games to car pools to the orthodontist, and hardly had time to breathe (and had to do most of my writing at night, because the days were so full with nine young children at home). I really miss those days, but who wouldn't? But each age, each era, each time in our life has its blessings. They are growing up to be young people I not only love, but admire and respect, and they are very good to me.

The holidays are often a mixed blessing, for many of us. It's a time of taking stock, and a landmark which allows us to assess where our lives are, and where we wish they would be. It brings back memories of happy times, and sometimes sad ones. We miss those no longer with us, and seem to miss them more than ever on holidays. We still miss my son Nick. It's hard to believe that he has been gone for ten years, but we continue to do worthwhile, dedicated work in his name through our two foundations which fund organizations that help the mentally ill. The book about him, "His Bright Light" is still read around the world, and brings hope to people suffering from mental illness, and their loved ones and families.

The greatest joy is to share the holidays with those we love, either family members or special friends. It is a time of hope and love and sharing and generosity, but can also be a lonely time for many, and a disappointment when the holidays don't match up with our dreams or expectations. It's a challenging time of year for most of us, and not always as perfect and happy as we wish. It's hard too if our families are disrupted in some way, or far away. It's wonderful to be home for Christmas—but sometimes not as perfect as we wish. Real life intrudes. My hope for you is that the holidays are exactly as you want them to be, that you are surrounded by people you love and who love you and that they treat you kindly and well. I hope that your dreams all come true during these holidays, not just for the gifts you'd like to find under your tree (if you have one), but I hope that these holidays are peaceful, fulfilling, and full of joy for you. May everything you need and wish for be yours over the holidays and in the coming year. As someone wise once said, our friends are the family we get to choose. So whether you are with real family, or friends, I hope that these holidays are filled with blessings for you.

I wish you happiness, health, prosperity, peace and success in the coming year. May you be surrounded by good people, loving friends, and family, and may love and joy always be yours.

Thank you for reading my books, and for your kindness to me this year, and every year. And may you be blessed in all the ways that are important to you. Happy Holidays! And may the New Year be your best one ever!

Love,
DS

P.S. You are always welcome to visit me at my home on the web:
http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/evwJ0Mx6Ij0V50H860ED